Claire Burdett: Interview

Interview with Claire Burdett by Liz Balmford

Social Media Marketing is a dark art. The topic is broad and complicated, and is constantly shifting — and at a faster pace than ever before.

Claire Burdett of The Media Marketing Company is at pains to de-mystify the whole subject. Her down-to-earth advice reassures those who feel overwhelmed by the mere thought of devising and implementing a social media marketing strategy.

Newbury-based Claire started the company in 2009 when she realised how little expertise there was in this area.

“Because of my background, this stuff comes easily to me and I've always been an 'early adopter'. Some equally socialmedia-minded friends and I noticed there was a gap in the market back in the Noughties, and that there were a lot of ‘snake oil salesmen’ trying to fill it by promising the earth and not delivering – couldn’t deliver – and trying to make a quick buck off unsuspecting businesses and clients.

“Starting during a recession might not have been the best timing, but we’ve steadily grown from three home-based partners to part of the Digital Roundabout revolution and working for many well-known and stellar clients with a core staff of nine.”

At first most of the fledgling business’s clients were in London – “well, they were the only ones who got it at first – until even 2013 most organisations outside London would still be saying ‘but why does my business need to use social media for marketing?'” says Claire, but now the company delivers digital, social media and integrated marketing services locally, nationally and internationally, as well as in London.

Their results speak for themselves, so it’s easy to see why small community projects, medium-sized charities and large corporations alike ask Claire and her team to head up their social media machine.

Claire’s background is rich and varied, and makes her uniquely qualified to deliver this sort of specialist consultancy. In order to stay ahead of the curve, she invests up to three hours a day reading, researching and watching the latest videos. “I find it fascinating, so it doesn’t feel like work to me.”

Claire goes on to describe where the digital world is going: “… 3-D printers that create food, fridges that order directly from the supermarket, dissolvable batteries that are implanted within a person that then Tweet their doctor when it’s time for them to be replaced — it’s the next level of connectivity via digital and social media and it’s very exciting!”

Indeed 🙂 But what about those of us who barely have time to tweet, let alone stick to a communications plan?

“Actually it can be broken down into very simple, do-able steps,” she reassures me. “At its heart it’s about authentic conversation. It involves listening and speaking from the heart, so it’s essentially quite feminine. Anyone who blatantly self-promotes, is aggressive or bullying will very quickly be shut down. And part of our service is to do all the ground work and then hand you a plan that’s easy to implement.”